Charles Siegel, 55, Md. insurance official

Charles "Chuck" Siegel, a former associate commissioner of the Maryland Insurance Division, died Friday of a heart attack at his Pikesville home. He was 55.

Mr. Siegel was the key architect in modernizing the agency's computer capabilities in the early 1990s, establishing computer audits of insurers and creating a tracking system for consumer complaints to help spot early signs of company insolvency.

As associate commissioner, he was also responsible for the examination and auditing of insurance companies based in Maryland. He was instrumental in the agency's handling of the precarious financial health of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maryland at a time when the insurer was under intense scrutiny.

The native of Schenectady, N.Y., began his career in 1960, working for General Signal Corp. in Rochester, N.Y. He later worked for Maryland Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co. before leaving in 1968 to join USF&G Corp. as a programmer-trainee.

Mr. Siegel enrolled in Loyola College's executive business program and graduated with a master's degree in business administration.

When he left USF&G in 1984, he was vice president for data processing. In that position, he designed and installed much of the company's computer systems.

For the next three years, he worked for Citicorp, mostly as senior technologist for the corporate technology group at Citibank. In 1985, he was named operations director of Citibank Savings in the United Kingdom, based in London.

From 1987 to 1989, he was director of the Property and Casualty Group of Arthur Young.

He was an adjunct faculty member at Villa Julie College for several years.

He served on the boards of several organizations, including CORE; the Montessori Schools; the corporate computer-users group called SHARE, for which he was national secretary; and the Jewish Big Brothers. He served as the Rochester coordinator for the historic 1963 March on Washington.

At the time of his death, he was studying for a degree in history at Towson State University with the intent of teaching the subject at the high school level.

He is survived by his wife of 31 years, Martha J. Siegel; a daughter, Rachel, of Menlo Park, Calif.; and a son, Norman Eli, an assistant Missouri state attorney general.

Funeral services were to be held at 10 a.m. today at Sol Levinson & Bros., 6010 Reisterstown Road, Baltimore.